Liza Sparks didn’t mind traveling to Berkeley. Or San Rafael. Or Napa.

But if she could help launch the West Coast Songwriters’ 14th chapter in Vallejo, it would make life so much easier.

And if the organization — stretching from Portland down to Hollywood — secured the downtown Empress Theatre as its local home, even better.

Done. And done.

And as of Jan. 9, local songwriters, performers, and supporters of songwriters and performers have a home.

It was three years ago when Sparks started the crusade, saying she merely “wished I had a venue close to me.”

Sparks discussed the possibilities with Empress general manager Kevin Frazier, who, as it turned out, she had met several years ago at — of all things — a West Coast Songwriters event.

“We knew each other. We just didn’t know each other’s names. It was easy to reconnect,” Sparks said.

The West Coast Songwriters was founded in 1979, though Sparks only became involved seven years ago, two years after suffering a major stroke.

“For me, it was that I needed to perform and didn’t know any venues,” she said, believing she was simply attending an open mic when it was actually a West Coast Songwriters event at the Martinez chapter at Armando’s.

The other performers and all the people were so supportive, said Sparks, adding that “it’s where I wanted to come back and try another song or the same song. They gave me so much feedback and so much support.”

A Vallejoan since she moved here from Florida in 1989, Sparks said music helped accelerate the healing process after her stroke.

“My husband read about music and how it speeds up the process. He gave me a guitar and I started playing from there,” said Sparks, considering herself “99 percent” recovered.

Sparks also plays a bit of banjo, mandolin and is learning cello, laughing that she “does not recommend” a stroke as part of learning an instrument.

Because competing songwriters travel around to the various chapter events, it was taking its toll on Sparks, who needed her husband behind the wheel while she recovered.

At that time, she said, “I wish we had a Vallejo one and I starting thinking about” starting a chapter here.

So far, so good, Sparks said.

“We gained members just from the prospect of us opening” in Vallejo, she said. “We’re excited.”

Membership is $100 a year and one needn’t be a songwriter or a performer playing a songwriter’s work, Sparks noted. One could merely be a supporter of the cause.

“Support is always good,” she said.

Competitions will run at the Empress every second Monday of the month, Sparks said, with one judge from the music industry and one judge non-industry.

Right now, Sparks if focusing on Jan. 9 in Vallejo with co-managers John Todd and Jay Gottlieb — “or I’d be competing elsewhere.”